Complaint Review: Lithia - Future Ford Of Concord

Around early July of 2004 I purchased a used 2003 Mazda B2300 pickup truck from Lithia Ford for work purposes. I have absolutely no problems with the truck whatsoever and am very happy with it. This problem stems from the lack of plates for the vehicle. At the time of the purchase it had no plates and I asked the sales manager about it when I was passed to him during the deal (as is the usual custom after the sales person himself has done his job).

I was concerned as to why a vehicle with so low miles and so new (only a year old) would not have its plates already and only had the paper dealer plates. The sales manager stated that it could be for various reasons. Most likely being that the person who owned it before had personalized plates and had them removed to put on his next vehicle. This seemed honest and straight forward enough for me. I do purchase many cars every year for my sales reps around the country and am used the games and dishonest ruses that come with car deals. But this seemed and, to be honest still seems a plausable excuse. (actually we have taken the plates with us several time too with our company cars with personalized plates with the company name when selling them or trading them off).

After about 3 months, no new plates arrived but the stickers from the DMV did. I went down to the DMV and showed the registration and stickers, then asked what I should do about getting the physical plates since they never arrived. The DMV looked up the records of the vehicle and stated that not only should I NOT have received the stickers, I needed to pay the tax and the vehicle. NO TAX HAD BEEN PAID! They explained that I needed to go right away back to the dealership and get the whole situation sorted out. Around this time my car insurance company was starting to hound me for the plate number of the vehicle (which I couldnt provide!). I went down to Lithia, explained the situation, was told many excuses and "Oh, we are very sorry! We goofed" etc. And was told that they would take care of it and all fees both tax and license.

Now it has been almost 6 months since the purchase, I have no plates, the DMV no longer shows that the taxes have not been paid (whew!!! that could have been real nasty!). I have been back now a total of 4 times now to Lithia. Every time I get the same attitude and response. Basically I am just getting the run around. The fourth time I went in, Lithia recently changed their name to "Future Ford" and tried to say they were no longer responsible...."sorry!" and escorted me to the door.

Also, my insurance company, now tipped off to the fact there are no plates and only stickers for the vehicle are threatening to not cover it. A friend of mine that happens to be a CHP officer told me that in the case I were to be pulled over in the vehicle, without proper plates, they COULD tow it until all was sorted out. It would be totally up to the officers judgement and most likely they would not (CHP doesnt like the paperwork on such a thing...hehe...whew!). Still the prospect of losing my insurance is not good, and the fact my friend can only speak for the CHP and not individual city police doesnt sit well with me either.

Until I can get Lithia to do what they should have done in the first place, I guess I just have a very expensive piece of metal on my driveway.

Thanks for any help!

Ben
Martinez, California
U.S.A.